Project Nomad: A Crazy Idea

As I sit here in my Spokane hotel room, it seems impossible that a mere 4 weeks have passed since I decided to let go of my Beaverton apartment and take to the road for the next 9 months.

I distinctly remember the moment I first thought about it. It was late on a Thursday night, and I had been complaining to my boyfriend (again) about how much of a pain in the ass it was going to be to collect rent from my roommates during my 6 week vacation in Wales.

And then, in the midst of my rant, I had this crazy thought. What if I just – didn’t? What if, instead of trying to figure out how to replace a roommate, renew the lease, and get the rent money from my roommates so that I could pay the rent for all three of us while on vacation in Wales – what if I just didn’t bother?

I laughed about it at the time. Not because I didn’t want to take my business – heck, my whole life – on the road. I laughed because I believed that dream, conceived in July 2012, was still a year away from reality.

But the next morning, I casually mentioned the idea to my mother in an email. And then, suddenly, the idea wasn’t so crazy. I was already planning a 6 week trip to Wales. I had a house-sitting gig lined up for 2 weeks the end of June. By the end of the day, I had the beginnings of a schedule worked out.

And in fact, less than 1 week later, what had been a crazy idea in my head became fact. I told my roommate (the one who had planned on staying) that I wasn’t going to renew the lease at the end of April. And I had that conversation with him 6 days after that initial crazy, late-night what-if.

Now, I don’t want you to think that it all magically worked out for me, although I will admit that it feels that way. There’s a lot that goes in to turning your life upside down, as it turns out. So here’s a bullet list of everything I’ve done for “Project Nomad” in the last 4 weeks:

• Figured out where to store my stuff (I’m sharing my boyfriend’s storage unit)
• Got a frequent flyer account with United Airlines so I could start racking up frequent flyer points
• Got 2 new credit cards that do not charge foreign transaction fees. And one of them is the United card. Hello, frequent flier miles!
• Applied for 2 new checking accounts, ones that do not charge foreign transaction fees. So far, Schwab is highly amazing, and HSBC is all kinds of terrible.
• Set up a permanent street mailing address so that my insurance (brand new as of April 1st) and my business will continue to be domiciled in Oregon.
• Booked my tickets to Europe, and my B & B.
• Accepted a house-sitting opportunity in Dublin for December.
• Printed out paperwork to go member at large with my international chorus organization.
• Figured out check out procedures for the apartment.

The list looks fairly short, but don’t let it fool you – an incredible amount of planning has gone into the last four weeks. Most of it, though, has been on the itinerary end. Here is what my itinerary looks like right now:

Late April – Mid June: Wales

Mid-June & July: Portland

Beginning August: Colorado

Mid-August to Mid-October: Montreal

End of October: Colorado

1st Half of November: Portland

Last Half of November: Boston

December: Dublin

As for what happens after December, it’s anyone’s guess. I have long wanted to move to Europe, so if my visit to Wales goes well, I may get an apartment there. Or, I may decide to come back to Portland. A third option is to continue the life of an on-the-road house-sitter, although I would need longer assignments (2 – 3 months) to make that lifestyle doable.

There are times when I look at this itinerary and it looks amazing. And there are times when I look at it and think, “For a woman who *really* likes routines, that’s a lot of moving around!”

In the end, time will tell whether this sort of lifestyle is what I want to do. I’ve been dreaming about it for the last 2 years, and my main client is totally OK with me working from anywhere. So there’s no time like the present, as they say.

In the next week, my primary goal is to get everything packed by Friday, and then get friends to help me move all my stuff into the storage area over next weekend. It will be a very busy week – I’ve lived in my current apartment for 8 years, so there’s lots of stuff to get rid of! But go it must, and go it shall. Just don’t expect me to sleep too much over the next week. 🙂

I could go on about all the minute details, but I think this just about sums up the main points of the last month. If you want more details, or have questions I didn’t answer here, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them. Note, though, that I won’t answer anything that’s too personal or otherwise unfit to print on the internet. 🙂

Until next week,

Felicity